pink slip
by she.daydreams.in.colour
Summary: Pink slip - a race where the winner gets to keep the loser's car. Unfortunately for Kol Mikaelson, he lost to Caroline Forbes. Even more unfortunately, the DB9 he lost belongs to his brother Klaus.


**Pink Slip**

_Another bolt-on wonderboy looking to get smoked? (Razor Callahan, NFS Most Wanted)_

* * *

It felt like a punch in the gut. The kind that makes you want to bawl like a little girl, the kind that makes you want to throw up last week's dinner, the kind that makes you want to - _Please Lord just let me drop dead._

Kol watched helplessly as the guy from the towing company secured the dowel that would be used to haul his car – correction, Klaus' car – to apparently the Salvatore garage. Street racing in Rockport ran with stakes as high as a driver gets when clocking 210 mph in the freeway – lose the race, lose your car. And as mentioned hitherto, unfortunately for Kol the Aston Martin DB9 he lost did not even belong to him, but to his brother Klaus.

In all fairness to Kol who was a skilled racer himself, he didn't plan to get a run that day. He borrowed the car from Klaus because he had a date with this girl, Diana Meade, totally preppy so he needed a car classier than his own brawny Mustang.

But then there was this snooty Mercedes Benz CLK that had the nerve to overtake and almost tag him while he was cruising Highway 99. So he stepped on the gas to show the snoot who's the boss. And lo and behold, the CLK spewed out nitro. They stopped at a gas station, the CLK's door opened and out came this hot blonde challenging Kol to a pink slip run.

Diana Meade was entirely forgotten.

A _girl_ challenged him. How could Kol possibly back out without looking like a wuss?

"What the bloody hell did you do?"

Kol winced as he heard the irate roar from behind him. He turned around and sure enough, there was Klaus, crazed with anger and disbelief at the sight of his precious Aston Martin baby being attached to a tow truck like it was some regular sedan and not a hundred grand max-tuned luxury race car.

"Nik, I'm really –"

"Who. Smoked. You." Klaus bit out. He looked like he was ready to tear Kol's guts out of his stomach with his bare hands.

Kol said no more and motioned at the girl whose back was turned to them as she spoke with the towing company guy. The older Mikaelson wasted no time and immediately made his way to the conversing pair.

"Stop right this bloody –"

The girl turned to Klaus and in an instant he lost all faculties of speech.

She was stunning. Wheat blonde hair, clear blue eyes, shell-pink lips. She wore nothing more than a white V-neck cotton shirt (which afforded him the smallest hint of cleavage), dark denim jeans and knee-length boots, but she would squash Kristen Stewart in Oscar De la Renta any goddamned day you'd care to name. She looked at Klaus, right into his own baby blues, and every ounce of anger went flying out of the window.

He didn't believe in love at first sight, but damn, there was no other explanation for the blood pumping up to his head and down to his co-

"Is there something I can help you with?"

Klaus blinked. _Fuck, Mikaelson, say some-fucking-thing._

"That's my ride."

Cue mental facepalm. Nice, Klaus, you totally sounded like a jerk.

She flicked her head towards the Aston Martin once more and couldn't hold back from giggling in excitement. "You owned him? He's gorgeous! I can't wait to ride him, I'm sure he's going to be sweet!"

He almost scowled when she said 'You OWNED', noting her use of past tense, but the moment he heard 'I can't wait to ride him' his mind logged off rational mode and ran in green, no sadly not the environmental kind.

"See, that's the matter love. My idiot brother lost to you but it's my car and I'd like to have it off the bloody haul so I can take it home. I will personally deliver Kol's Mustang –"

She smiled at him but there was a brazen look in her eyes. "Sorry," she said, showing him the pink slip.

_Aston Martin DB9 2012_

_Registration Plate: HYBRID_

_(signed, Kol Mikaelson)_

"Says here I won an Aston Martin, not a Mustang." She told him firmly. "Don't worry, if it's any consolation I'll take good care of your –"

"What's your name?" Klaus cut in.

"I'm sorry?"

"What's your name, love?"

She hesitated for a moment, but then gave in. "Caroline. Caroline Salvatore."

Klaus paused, recalling the familiar family name. He then tilted his head sideward down, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at her.

This was his best angle, dammit, it better work.

"Tell me, Caroline, what will it take for me to get that ride back?"

Caroline stopped briefly to meet his eyes, considering the question. The Aston Martin was hers now and she smoked a legit driver for that, there's no need to prove anything to anyone.

But when your brother is the top racer in Rosewood and he refuses to let you be part of his crew because he doesn't think you can handle it, there's always something to prove.

"With a ride like that, I'll wager you race too?"

Klaus smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know."

She folded her arms across her chest. "Fine. Pink slip run. Sprint, Eighteen miles, Highway 99. Got a problem?"

"Stakes."

"If you win, I'll give you back your ride. If I win, you foot the bill for the DB9 custom. I like my cars wired tight."

"No need for a trip to the garage, sweetheart, that ride's maxed out." Klaus informed her. "But I want the stakes raised."

Caroline raised a brow.

"If you win, you get my ride and I'll never bother you again. If I win, I get my DB9 back and you go out with me."

"What?"

"I said, if I win, I get my DB9 back and you go out with me."

Caroline rolled her eyes. The Brit was hot and his ride was dope, but it turned out that he was like all the other guys she'd raced before. He thought she was just some pretty girl who couldn't hold her own on the asphalt against a guy.

Oh she would smoke him and show him just how wrong he is.

"Fine, but you're not using the DB9. You have another car?"

"What do you think I rode to get here, sweetheart?" Klaus said, motioning at the Audi A4 at far sight. It was Elijah's car and it wasn't wired as tight as Klaus' DB9 or Kol's Mustang, but it'll have to suffice.

Racing, anyway, was 50% car and 50% driver.

Caroline got her keys out. "Call."

-o-

_Ding dong_.

Caroline groaned at the sound of the doorbell, huffing miserably as she checked her watch in the pathetic hope that it was not Saturday, it was not 11am and that the guy who rang the doorbell was not the guy she lost the DB9 to.

How was he supposed to know that this Klaus guy was leaps and bounds better than his brother Kol, not to mention leaps and bounds better than Caroline herself? He wove through Highway 99 like he was Michael Schumacher racing some go-karter. He finished over one freakin minute ahead of her, dammit, over sixty freakin' seconds. She totally blew.

And the humiliation didn't stop there. Near the end of the run that she tried to finish despite losing badly to Klaus, Caroline was caught speeding and was promptly apprehended by two Rhino units, of all things, that happened to be on their way back to the police station through the Highway 99 route. She was slapped an instant six-moth license suspension and her CLK would have been impounded if Klaus hadn't gallantly volunteered to call his connections at the police headquarters in Rockport.

It was horrifying. Mortifying. Embarrassing.

And now she owed him a date. She balked at the idea of going out to dinner with him so she told him she'll only do lunch. He said something about the movies but she didn't care to listen because she figured she's just gonna put at least three seats between them.

"That must be your date." Stefan told her calmly, though he was looking at her in an I-told-you-so kind of way.

"I lost, Stefan, my license is suspended and my car was almost impounded. You don't need to rub it in."

"I'm not rubbing it in, Care, I'm just trying to make you realize why I don't want you taking on the streets."

"You're just trying to make me realize why you don't want me taking on the streets - by rubbing it in."

Stefan shrugged. "Come on, prolonging your agony won't do you any good. Let's meet your date and I'll have a word with him before you go."

She rolled her eyes as she and Stefan headed out of the house. Klaus was waiting outside the gate and ugh he really just had to bring that DB9 instead of some other car, didn't he?

"Niklaus Mikaelson?" Stefan said in surprise.

"Stefan Salvatore." Klaus replied calmly.

Caroline frowned. "You know each other?"

Stefan held back an amused smile. "Not personally. But I know about you from the underground. No wonder Caroline got smoked. You've been holding down Downtown Rockport for years."

"The same way The Ripper has been holding down Rosewood borough for years." Klaus shot right back at him. "Perhaps you fancy a roll, Ripper? Speedtrap, see who clocks better?"

Stefan's smile turned from friendly to sly. "Careful, Mikaelson. I don't let rivals go out with my sister."

"Can we please just go now?" Caroline griped, glaring at Klaus.

The Mikaelson chuckled in amusement before going around and opening the door for his date. "After you, love."

"At least I get to ride this car." Caroline muttered under her breath as Klaus closed the door.

Paying one last glance of courtesy to Stefan, Klaus walked back to the driver's side of the ride with a pleased expression on his face.

Oh he would make sure that his car isn't the only thing that Caroline rides.

Soon enough.

-o-

A/N:

1. Hey guys, it's Erica. :) I write multi-chapter fics as **she. dreams. in. colour** in FFN and I'm on tumblr as **erica-dreams-in-colour**. Feel free to check out my other stuff, links are in my profile page.

2. 'In progress' because I'm really grateful for the love this fic got on tumblr and I'm definitely thinking of a sequel and possibly more chapters. Maybe shirtless Klaus helping Caroline wash her car? ;)

3. Friends super sorry to everyone who's posted new stories or updates that I haven't reviewed yet or sent reviews/messages that I haven't answered, I've been having very busy weekends lately. :( I promise to catch up next weekend. :)


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